#LGBT Art | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

song-of-stardust · 1 day ago

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Hi! I'd like to add something with my own experience of art history.

The first thing we learned in any art history class (and we learned it EVERY ART HISTORY CLASS) is that it kinda matters how you display things!!! Masks must be presented with full costumes to get full context, etc. How you display them matters too, like if you place that mask on a wall, stand, or lay it on a display or even the ground. We can always get into the whole "should it be leaning against a corner or laying on the floor" debate, but that's not the point I'm making here (although I hate the way it is just laying on the floor).

The point is, if you don't include context, the FIRST THING YOU LEARN TO DO IN ANY CLASS, you have failed as a museum or display. You have taken away what makes it "art." Anyone can lay candy on the ground. Not everyone can make a portrait of someone they loved dearly in a way that reflects the time and stigma around them.

Items MUST be presented with context. Without it, the piece is meaningless. Not only is this queer erasure, but it could be said they are claiming The Portrait of Ross isn't art at all. Would that be a stretch? I'd like to hope so. I'd like to chalk this incident up to some idiot director who doesn't fucking know the first damn thing about displaying shit, but IT'S THE SMITHSONIAN. You would THINK they MIGHT know how to display things. Regardless of what happened, IT LOOKS BAD. Not just for the piece, but the museum itself.

As a queer artist, this makes me so mad on so many levels. The incompetence, intentional or not, cannot be excused and I hope someone gets fired for this.

the david zwirner gallery and the felix gonzalez torres foundation in the smithsonian removed the descriptive plaque for portrait of ross in la by felix gonzalez-torres. the old plaque explained portrait for ross' origins as the artist's partner's aids related death, and replaced it with a plaque with absolutely no information about the piece itself, who ross was, or who gonzalez-torres was either. portrait of ross was also reeranged to lay on the floor long ways instead of in a pile as it typically is situated, and the plaque outside the exhibition FOR GONZALEZ-TORRES omits his sexuality, as well as his aids related death. i'm in utter disbelief